Getting a new machine and need to transfer some files and photos from an Asus PC running Win 8.1 to a new Dell running Win 10/11.

Any goobers I should expect? About 300GB, I’ll be using a new 8TB external drive.

While your current PC is still running, copy the files - and only the files - you want to save to a USB drive or drives.

Then pull the drive and insert into the new PC to copy over.

Also: From the new PC, you could probably find the old PC on the network and copy the files directly over the network. There may be some permissions to set to allow the Dell to access the files on the Asus computer.

And if you don't have a back up system, I suggest you take this opportunity to set one up. It doesn't have to be a "back up" program but an actual file copy archive.

I use two systems: Beyond Compare which does a comparison and copy of changed files and Acronis which does a back up. I've since learned that I can go into a back up file and just restore a particular file.

stick it in the source, copy the files, stick it in the target, copy files. Done

I'd definitely get your entire profile (and any others that were created) under c:\users\ from the source machine just for safe keeping (not to copy over into the same spot). You have plenty of space

I'd remove the drive from the old computer - insert in in the new one (don't boot to it) then copy the data over, then reformat the drive and use as internal backup.

That leaves the old computer inoperable so if you want to keep it going don't do the the reformat and re-insert the old drive.

Of course you could always just copy the old files over the network but you might have to configure a few things.
A direct connection is faster.
To me to copy the files to an USB then copy to the new computer is just and extra slower step.

Thanks. I’m looking at all these.

Dumb question, is it better to leave the external hooked up and powered on, with a surge protector, or unplug until needed to do a back up?

Most of the photos are coming from our iPhones.

Eventually, I’ll need to sit down and redo my network stuff and clean it up. Just not that good at it. Haha.

Are you going to keep the old machine running, if so, copy the advice to copy to a USB stick and transfer that way is the simple way to go.

If the new machine has USB 2.0 make sure the USB stick has that capability so it's quicker...

If you are going to take the old machine down, get a USB hard drive enclosure, remove the old machine drive, put in enclosure and connect to the new machine using USB.

You can use it as a backup drive, and access your old data from it vs transferring the data to the new machines drive. Downside is if it fails, data will be gone, so you'll want to back up the data perhaps to a cloud based solution, then in the future you don't need to worry about moving those photos and docs around again.

quote:

Dumb question, is it better to leave the external hooked up and powered on, with a surge protector, or unplug until needed to do a back up?

If you have the where-with-all to actually turn on and back up manually then THAT is actually better security.
It will protect the backup from getting corrupted itself such as ransomware, etc..

However, for an automated or scheduled backup, it will need to be on all the time.

A surge protector is always a good idea but not a life-death critical decision.